PYONGYANG: North Korea could have more nuclear weapons than the UK by 2035 thanks to technical assistance from Russia, analysts have warned.

The country currently has an arsenal of around 50 nuclear warheads but that could surge to 300 within a decade as Russia pays back Kim Jong-un for the troops that Pyongyang sent to fight the war against Ukraine.

North Korea could “very probably” already detonate a nuclear weapon over a US city and its alliance with Moscow means that it is only going to increase its offensive capabilities, according to Ankit Panda, an expert on North Korea’s development of nuclear weapons at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.Mr Panda told Radio Free Asia: “The area where I think the Russians can really help them is with guidance computers, cruise missile manoeuvring, cruise missile control and potentially even countermeasures.”

Mr Panda said it is likely that Kim, the North Korean dictator, will continue to modernise and expand his nuclear forces to reach a condition of “mutual vulnerability”, whereby Kim feels sufficiently confident that in a crisis the US and its South Korean ally will not be able to eliminate all his nuclear weapons.To reach that level of stable deterrent, Mr Panda said it will mean an increase from the estimated 50 warheads that Kim presently possesses.